Magical Mysteries
by Healer Pomfrey
Summary: Several times Harry is having detention with Dolores Umbridge, something happens to her or her office, but Harry can't be the culprit. Completely AU, partly OOC, character death! Umbridge, sick!Harry


**Magical Mysteries**  
**by Healer Pomfrey**

_All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.  
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes._

_**Warning: This is not one of my nice and fluffy stories!**_

* * *

Harry groaned upon opening his eyes, noticing that they hurt as much as the rest of his body. Since the previous evening, he hadn't been feeling overly well, and by now he knew that he had caught some of the annoying bugs that had been going around the castle for a few weeks.

_'I can't miss Defence though,'_ he thought, inwardly groaning at the thought of having a double Defence class first thing in the morning.

"Harry, are you coming?" Ron brought him out of his musings. "I'm hungry."

"Go ahead," Harry replied, noticing that it hurt to speak. "I'll catch up with you on time for the first class."

"Harry, are you feeling all right?" Hermione asked, worriedly, taking in that his face was white with flushed cheeks and his hair was sticking to his sweaty forehead in concern.

"Not really, but I can't miss Defence," Harry whispered back, adding, "Thank Merlin it's almost the weekend. Only double Defence and then double Potions left."

HP

However, it should take longer than expected for the weekend to arrive. When Harry remained inattentive in his Defence class for a moment, while a violent shiver struck his body, Professor Umbridge assigned him yet another detention in her office for the same evening.

"Professor, Harry isn't well," Hermione tried to save him, which only caused the professor to assign Harry one more detention in addition for the following evening.

HP

"Harry, just go to Pomfrey," Ron advised him, when they headed back to Gryffindor after their last afternoon class. "She'll excuse you from your detention, especially if she hears that you only received it because you attended classes in spite of being sick."

"No." Harry shook his head in determination, almost stumbling over Mrs. Norris, who was running along the corridor after Mr. Filch. "Stupid cat," he mumbled, fiercely rubbing his foot. "Umbitch would only fire Madam Pomfrey for getting me out of the detention, and I definitely don't want that," he then explained.

"You could speak with Professor McGonagall," Hermione suggested, giving him a concerned look.

"No, I don't want her to get in trouble with that bitch either," Harry replied, sighing. "I'm going to lie down for a while. Can you please wake me up in time for my detention?"

"Of course we will," Hermione replied, gently, and motioned Ron to stay in the common room with her and do his homework.

HP

Several hours later, Harry dragged himself to the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor's office. However, to his surprise, the door to Professor Umbridge's office, which was supposed to be on the right hand side of the Defence classroom, was gone.

_'What now?'_ Harry wondered, tentatively knocking at the classroom door to no avail. _'Maybe I'm delirious,'_ he thought, placing his forehead against the castle's cool wall that felt soothing to his hot skin. He let himself sink to the ground and waited for the door to appear or the professor to come looking for him; however, nothing happened. Feeling hot and cold at the same time and somehow worse by the minute, Harry slowly drifted off to a fevered slumber.

HP

Almost an hour later, the Scottish lioness received a Floo call from her most hated colleague, who claimed that one fifth year Gryffindor had not shown up for his detention and thus earned himself a month worth of detentions.

"I'll go and see why Mr. Potter missed his detention," McGonagall said coldly and ended the call. Getting worried since it did not sound like Harry to skip detention without a valid excuse, she took the shortcut to the Gryffindor common room, where she only found the friends of the boy in question.

"Where's Mr. Potter?" she asked crisply. "Professor Umbridge informed me that he missed his detention tonight."

"But he went to attend his detention," Hermione replied immediately. "Maybe something happened to him on the way. Harry was very unwell today, and I think he's ill."

"Why didn't he go to the hospital wing then?" McGonagall queried in disbelief. "Madam Pomfrey would have excused from his detention."

"He didn't want either of you to get into trouble with Professor Umbridge," Hermione explained, jumping from her chair. "I'll go and look for him."

"I'll accompany you," McGonagall said in determination, following her student out of the common room.

HP

When they arrived in front of the Defence classroom, they realised that Harry was sitting next to the door asleep and that the door to Umbridge's office had mysteriously disappeared.

McGonagall's mouth stretched to a thin line, as her knock at the classroom door remained unanswered. Mumbling the password that overruled all private passwords, the deputy headmistress entered the classroom, motioning her student to follow her. She knocked at the connecting door to her colleague's office, giving Umbridge a stern look, when she opened the door in apparent surprise.

"This is just to inform you that the door to your office has vanished and that Mr. Potter is sitting in the corridor, where your door is supposed to be," McGonagall said in a voice, which was usually reserved for students in detention.

"Well then let's ask Mr. Potter what he has done to my office door," the pink robed professor replied sweetly, causing Hermione to let out an uncharacteristically disrespectful snort.

"Harry is ill, Professor - as I already told you this morning. He wouldn't be able to do anything, let alone such a stunt," the fifth year prefect replied, incredulously.

"Ms. Granger, do you know how to make a door vanish?" McGonagall asked sharply.

"No Professor," Hermione replied in a firm voice.

"Now Dolores, if Ms. Granger doesn't know how to play such a prank, Mr. Potter surely won't know," McGonagall informed her colleague, before she stepped out into the corridor, worriedly placing a hand on the boy's forehead. "He's burning up," she stated and conjured a stretcher, while the Defence professor approached the boy, fiercely shaking his shoulders.

"Wake up Mr. Potter and make my door appear again," she instructed the obviously sick child in a false, sweet voice.

_'Disgusting,'_ McGonagall thought and - forcing herself to remain calm - replied, "I'm going to take Mr. Potter to Madam Pomfrey. He surely hasn't done anything to your door. Maybe someone has placed it under the Fidelius Charm, but I believe that the Headmaster would be the only one able to help you. Mr. Potter definitely doesn't know such a difficult charm."

"I insist that he'll be questioned under Veritaserum," Umbridge hissed and hurried in the direction of the Headmaster's office, seeing that McGonagall and Hermione had already left with Harry.

HP

A few hours later, Harry was peacefully engulfed in a potions induced slumber, when Professor Umbridge together with the Potions Master entered the hospital wing.

Feeling someone fiercely shake his shoulder, Harry woke up with a jolt, seeing his two most hated professors standing in front of his bed.

"Mr. Potter, I want to question you under Veritaserum," Umbridge was the first to speak up, motioning the Potions Master to administer three drops of the potion.

Placing the card with the medical record, which he had just studied, back on the night table, Snape let out a long sigh. "Dolores, I'm sorry, but I can't give the boy Veritaserum in his condition. Alternatively, I could offer to use Legilimency on him."

"Then do that," Umbridge instructed her colleague, impatiently, causing Snape to quirk an eyebrow at Harry.

"Do what you must, Professor," Harry croaked, turning half-open, glassy eyes to the Potions Master. He felt the professor enter his mind, however, noticed that the man for once was very careful as not to hurt him. The scene of the previous morning's Defence class as well as the conversations with his friends and himself heading to his detention detecting that the door was missing played in front of his mind, before Snape carefully pulled off.

"Potter did nothing to your door. It was already gone, when he approached your office," he informed his older colleague, making Harry cast him a grateful look.

"He could have shown you a wrong memory," Harry heard Umbridge reply and closed his eyes in annoyance, drifting back to a much needed healing sleep instantly.

HP

By the time Harry was released from the hospital wing and attended his first Defence Against the Dark Arts class, he realised that the door to the professor's office was back. _'I wonder who did that,'_ he thought upon entering the classroom. However, not even Hermione could tell him the answer. _'Which probably means that no one knows,'_ he mused, inwardly groaning, when the professor began her usual, theoretical lesson.

"Again detention with Umbridge tonight," he groaned, when he walked towards the Great Hall for lunch together with his friends.

"I'm going to accompany you to her office," Hermione said in determination. "I won't have anyone accuse you of doing anything to her door again."

_'I hope someone does it again,'_ Harry thought, when he headed to Umbridge's office for his detention the same evening, feeling strangely reassured by Hermione's presence. However, the door was clearly there and could not be missed for any reason. Letting out a long sigh, Harry knocked at the door.

The instant he knocked, he heard a huge sound coming from inside the office.

"Wait Harry. Don't go in now," Hermione whispered, holding on to his arm.

"What happened?" Harry queried, quirking an eyebrow.

"It sounded like crashing of porcelain," Hermione said, thoughtfully, just when the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor opened the door.

"What did you do now?" she immediately hissed at Harry, completely ignoring the girl.

"Harry didn't do anything," Hermione hissed back in a firm voice. "I've been here with him the whole time."

"I'll deal with Mr. Potter," Umbridge announced in her false sweet voice, which Harry detested so much.

"Well and I'm going to speak with the Headmaster," Hermione replied and hurried away.

HP

Almost anxiously, Harry entered the professor's office, noticing in surprise that all of her cat's plates had fallen off the walls crashing into the ground. _'How did that happen?'_ he thought, wondering if the professor had done it herself in order to make everyone believe that it was his fault. He quietly lowered himself into the chair and began to write the assigned sentences.

Only on his way back to Gryffindor did Harry notice that his hand felt much worse than usual.

"Harry, sorry, Professor Dumbledore wasn't in his office," Hermione informed him as soon as he entered the common room. "I spoke with McGonagall though, and she promised to talk with Umbridge and the Headmaster later on."

"Thanks Mione," Harry replied, gratefully accepting the bowl with Murtlap that his friend had prepared for him.

HP

Unfortunately, it only helped so much, and when Harry woke up in the morning, his hand hurt a lot and he noticed that the cuts had become infected overnight in spite of the Murtlap essence. During the rest of the week, he dragged himself through his classes and his detentions, which remained extremely painful. Harry felt worse by the day, and on Friday evening, he failed holding himself upright anymore during his detention and fell from his chair, remaining unconscious on the floor.

"Tststs stupid boy," Umbridge said, pointing her wand at the boy. "Enervate."

"Sorry," Harry mumbled, holding on to the chair to get back on his feet.

Seeing that the child was swaying and unable to stand, Umbridge grudgingly pointed her wand at him, levitating him out of her office and in the direction of the hospital wing.

HP

All of a sudden, Harry felt himself sink to the floor and, realising that the professor's levitating spell had to have failed, curiously glanced around. However, to his surprise, Professor Umbridge had completely vanished from the sight. Only a pinkish toad was roaming the corridor.

_'Umbridge is a toad Animagus?'_ he thought in confusion, trying to bring himself into a sitting position.

Before Harry could understand what had happened, the Potions Master showed up seemingly out of nowhere.

"What happened to you, Potter? Why are you out after curfew at all?" Snape's voice penetrated his foggy mind.

"I'm sorry Professor, but I had detention with Professor Umbridge, but I'm not feeling so well and wanted to go to the hospital wing," Harry explained, wearily.

"Madam Pomfrey is away over the weekend," the professor informed him in a voice that for once held no malice. "I believe that you're ill though, and I'm going to take you with me." With a flick of his wand, he conjured a stretcher and gently helped the boy to lie down on it. Suddenly, he reached for something on the floor. "Just what I needed for the potion tonight," he said, smirking.

The thought _'You can't use that. It's Umbridge'_ crossed Harry's feverish mind; however, before he could voice his concern, they had reached the hospital wing and the professor spelled the necessary potions into the boy's system, which made him fall asleep instantly.

HP

Observing Harry succumb to the potions, Snape headed to the fireplace and called the boy's Head of House. "Minerva, someone must have used a blood quill on Mr. Potter, and he's asleep in the hospital wing with infected cuts and a high fever. Could you please stay with him for an hour? I urgently need to brew the potion for the toad's flu for Hagrid."

"Of course," the Scottish lioness replied, gently. "I'll be with Harry in two minutes. That must have been Dolores by the way, and I'll see to it that she receives a one-way ticket to Azkaban."

The Potions Master slightly inclined his head, before he made his way to his private lab, his main ingredient for the potion firmly tucked in his robe pocket.

_** Epilogue **_

After a short excursion to the corridors between the hospital wing and the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher's office to make sure that the corridors were free from toads or any possibly dangerous objects, Mr. Filch returned to his office, firmly locking the door behind himself. A small smile was playing on his lips, as he hid his wand deep in his inner robe pocket that was invisible to everyone but himself. He then placed his secret copy of the Marauders' Map back into the envelope with the inscription _'WWW'_ and returned it into his drawer for dangerous magical objects, before he leaned back in his most comfortable seat, absentmindedly petting Mrs. Norris' head. _'I wouldn't have dared to hope that it would work, after Umbridge pestered everyone continuously about what happened to her and her office. Thank Merlin that they all don't know for whom I'm working and believe that I'm a Squib.'_

Taking an empty parchment out of his first drawer, he wrote, _'Mission accomplished. Awaiting further directives.'_ Pocketing the parchment, he slowly walked up to the owlery, instructing one of the school owls to take it to the Ministry of Magic, Department of Magical Mysteries, for which he had already been a spy over many years.

**THE END**

_**Any similarities to my story 'Magical Mess' are deliberate.**_


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